The Unseen, Unheard Helper hands you a note. You read it. 'Look at yourself -- closely, closer still, and yet closer. Look until you disappear. All you see are pieces -- pieces of the past piled up like the snows of countless winters, like the countless dead. To know yourself, you must know the past. Only then can you know your true purpose. Seek the study. Delve into its records.'

Find the study inside the lower floor of the citadel, near the garden 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

Pick up books in the study. Defeat the animated books to read their contents 0/4 (Arx Mentis)

Clicking on the book triggers the spawn of one auto-aggro mob. Updates are random upon kills of the triggered mob, so you may need to kill more than four. There are two regular zone spawns (with five minute respawn timers) next to the book trigger, and the general zone population assists the animated books. The regular mobs next to the book trigger each hit for a max ~21,000 and are immune to mez. The books ("a grand tome of history") each hit for a max ~18,500 and have a lot of hitpoints. They are also immune to mez.

a grand tome of history wildly flicks its pages as a breeze scatters symbols into the air.

a grand tome of history has been slain by _____!
a grand tome of history's corpse slams shut and lands with a thud.

You open the book to a marked page. '... Why would not our forbearers follow Seru to the moon? Why would they let the waves overcome them and remain beneath the sea, abandoning their legacy? They were afraid -- afraid of what it would take to establish an empire to rule over Norrath...'

You open the book to a marked page. '... We were not afraid of the light, of the skies, of the limitless possibilities beyond Tsaph Katta. We were not afraid of the pursuit of perfection -- tinkering, magic, life itself...'

You open the book to a marked page. '... There must be a hierarchy, a ladder of being. Not all have reached the higher rungs. Some must toil until we all may ascend...'

You open the book to a marked page. '... Arx Mentis shall stand upon their shoulders, upon their backs, and reach ever higher into the sky. And then our feet shall no longer touch the ground...'

Speak with the Unseen, Unheard Helper near the study 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

The Unseen, Unheard Helper hands you a note. You read it. 'A spark flashes in the dark. The spark lights a fire. The fire spreads into a blaze. An idea -- it spreads from one man to an entire empire, burning with the purity of shared purpose. All other considerations are consumed, forgotten fuel for the blaze. Seek the observation deck. View the Observation Matrix.'

Find the Observation Deck two floors above the entrance, containing a large window 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

Defeat the Keeper of the Matrix and loot the Observation Matrix 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

Note: The Keeper of the Matrix is leashed to the room in which she's found. She hits for a max ~20,000; buffs herself with "Mirrored Magical Coat" (non-dispellable 80% spell reflect for 90 seconds). She is immune to mez, and there are conflicting reports of whether she is rootable/snareable and puntable (may or may not be, but probably not). As mobs in the zone have a five-minute respawn timer, you'll want to be quick about it or bring crowd control with you.

Keeper of the Matrix says 'You dare test my skills?'

Keeper of the Matrix has been slain by _____!
Keeper of the Matrix's corpse says 'You'll never make it out... alive.'

Use the Observation Matrix and speak with the hologram it generates 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

Right-clicking the item triggers the spawn of a targetable hologram. Hail it for the update.

an instructive hologram begins talking as though picking up in the middle of a memorized speech. '... Calix taught us a truth our ancestors did not know: the lower races are not pure dross to be consumed in our furnaces of industry. Precious metals lie within. They only need to be extracted...'

Speak with the Unseen, Unheard Helper on the Observation Deck 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

The Unseen, Unheard Helper hands you a note. You read it. 'Magic is not enough. Beliefs are not enough. Power is not enough. Only purity matters. Purity itself is power, and all other weaknesses, like dross, must be burned away. Find the analysis room. Use the Observation Matrix. Read the notes.'

Use the Observation Matrix in the Analysis Room and speak with the hologram it generates 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

Note: This hologram appears at a fixed location on the east side of the room.

an analytic hologram begins talking. '... We have identified and catalogued the races, from barbarians to dark elves, and all of those in between... Strength, night vision, resistance to disease, resistance to poison... For the progress of Arx Mentis, Calix shall bring them all together...'

Pick up the research logbook in the Analysis Room. Defend yourself against angry researchers 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

Clicking on this book triggers the spawn of 1x "a trait researcher". Kill these triggered spawns until you get the update (update is not guaranteed, so you may have to kill multiple researchers). These mobs hit for a max ~18,000.

a trait researcher has been slain by _____!
a trait researcher's corpse moans, clutching desperately at the air as nearby strands of light flicker and go out.

You read the research notes. '... The subject is stable. We have observed signs that disease resistance is present. However, ultravision and infravision have not expressed themselves. We currently have observed a 60 percent success rate in fostering the expression of these traits in subjects...'

Speak with the Unseen, Unheard Helper in the Analysis Room 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

The Unseen, Unheard Helper hands you a note. You read it. 'Purity of purpose gestates. It gives birth. Its offspring change the world forever. Go to the medical chamber. View the record disk.'

As with the Keeper of the Matrix, this mob is leashed to the immediate area in which it's found. Loot a "Record Disk" from its corpse.

Use the Observation Matrix and Record Disk in the Medical Chamber. Speak with the recording of Calix 0/8 (Arx Mentis)

a recording of Calix says 'Look at them, Una.' The recording of Calix points to each of the bodies lying on the surgical tables, each one of a different race. 'These are your fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters.'

a recording of Una's expression is as unchanging as the real Una's. 'I don't understand. You are my father.'

a recording of Calix smiles. 'You are right. I am. But they helped make you. Everything that is good, everything I want you to be, came from them and others like them.'

a recording of Calix continues. 'All that was weak or unnecessary was left behind. What remains is perfection: You, my daughter.'

a recording of Una looks at her father. 'I am perfect?'

a recording of Calix says 'You are the summation of my purpose and the start of a new world.'

a recording of Una says, eyes unblinking, 'Is that why everyone else is so weak?'

a recording of Calix smiles again. 'Yes, Una. The weakness shall be purged. I shall teach you all you will ever need to know. And you shall be my champion, my gift to the world.'

Speak with the Unseen, Unheard Helper in the Medical Chamber 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

The Unseen, Unheard Helper hands you a note. You read it. 'Firiona, do you now understand? Do you know what your companions are? They are fuel for the blaze. They shall refine purity and purpose. Come, try to save them. See what we have all become.' At the bottom of the note is a crude map marking sections of the citadel.

Speak with Firiona outside the Citadel 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

Firiona Vie crushes the note in her hand and looks up at the citadel. '[Lanys]...'

Rewards:Experience
75 platinum

This task is repeatable with a 6-hour lockout from the time of request.

my rng hs here in like 1 second lol didn't mean to but I did a aoe and she agro'd otherwise doesn't attack even though kos. figured she was for quest since she spawns super fast and the xp was like 10% of normal lol.

The first book camp in the study is awkward because of the two static and one roaming adds. However, once in the swing of it with pet fully buffed I was getting two books per cycle. Updates were about 1 in 4.

The Keeper of Matrix may seem quite daunting at first, since she is tightly packed in with 5 attendants and a book. There is one combine that walks up and down the aisle. After killing the broom, pull a mob from either end when roamer is at the other end, you should get a single add if lucky. Take out the other side then that leaves the Keeper on her own, she is much weaker than the other mobs and goes down quickly. You will likely revisit this spot to camp the named book for the Hunter Achievement.

The analysis room was no problem, just keep clicking the book and fight the traits in situ. There will be an occasional broom to deal with.

study: I stayed on the southeast corner; two statics and one roamer, all unmezzable but not see-invis. i cleared the three adds, then clicked the book and fought the book; the first add i killed would usually repop as i was finishing off the book so had the ench pet off tank it

observation deck: this was the hardest part for me: 4 static mobs and two roamers around the keeper. most mobs are unmezzable; the books and brooms are see-invis and mezzable, and some of the caster mobs are mezzable but not sure which ones. the roaming broom can be pulled solo when it's right in front of the northeast hallway. then i had the necro pull the group into the hall and fd a couple times, although he died in the process luckily one of the adds stayed in the hall. then pulled the caster roamer that walks up and down the aisle when he was closest to the hallway and he came with the book and one other add, mezzed the book and had ench pet off-tank the second add. the mob in the hall separated the keeper from the fourth static mob so was then able to pull the keeper by herself, she dropped pieces for both toons.

analysis room: cleared the two mobs by the south hallway, clicked the book and fought the researcher by southwest corner/hallway. first time didn't get update, second time both toons got update.

medical room: cleared two mobs near north hallway. moved east to northeast corner and pulled bot, he came with one add. had ench pet off-tank add

and definitely bugged. Killed 4 molo and only got 2 updates. their flurry hurts my rogue and I could only kill them consistently with a 300 ac shield in offhand, 160k buffed hp, debuff poisons and the kitchen sink.....

On the Optic Bot - clear as much as you can first. Don't use any melee mercs. They will die fast and get you more aggro. Pet classes are great here. Pull Optic Bot out of the center of the aisle and to the end of the aisle, hopefully to a corner. Have most of your crew just around the corner either on the safe wall or in the hallway. Send in the pets and have casters duck out to dot, nuke or send in swarm pets. This way they avoid most of the adds and most of the damage from the bot's AE. I tried doing this with an extra caster merc or two and they didn't last long. Things went much better when I swapped in another healer merc. (I had two in the group, 1 on reactive and one on balanced). It took a bit of time but on our final try we got the bot down with no player, merc or pet deaths. When you need to hail, the double invis trick lets you hail as needed even though the cadavers repop very quickly.

On the Analysis Room portion - pull from the southern hallway and just bring the whole group inside to pick up the book, kill, rinse, repeat until everyone gets their update. This side of the room was a much easier way to do it. Forget crowd control and keeping things clear. If you stay huddled up to the books on that side you will never get more than one add.

I can't say 100% but 4 of us were doing this task, and my 3 friends got their updates, all on separate mobs (no 2 updates on 1 mob). Once it was just me left, we killed 4 or 5 and I hadn't got the update. I asked the group to pull pets/mercs away at mobs low health so I could get the kill shot. I got kill shot and update so it could be the person killing the mob gets the update.

On the step involving the books in the study I found once snared and led away the two static spawns never came back, even after snare dropped. I think maybe they got stuck chasing me. I used CoHero to clear agro. The wanderer DID come back but only after ensnare faded, about 14 minutes later.

Pull the book to the corridor that leads off the back of that room. Nothing wanders thru there except a non-agro quest mob. Then even if the statics or wanderer come back "early" they won't add to the fight with the tome. The tome hits hard and fast, btw. Not to be taken too lightly. It can be slowed, and incidentally it can be mezzed, for what that's worth.

The updates on kills are definitely not 100% but they aren't bad. I completed this step for all 6 toons with 28 kills. That's almost 100% success rate on kills. However I think the flag success here is similar to pharming mobs with quest drops. You get 4-5 drops at the beginning, if all 6 toon need the drop, but by the end the last toon is seeing 0-1 drops. After 21 kills I had 5 toons finished but my tank, the guy who was doing all the clicking, had only 2/4. Then we had a stretch of 5 straight with no success. Was getting frustrating. I camped the tank out entirely and returned. Next 2 kills were successful. Probably just the usual oddity with the random number generator but I'm glad to be done with those books! They gave zilch for experience, btw...

Keeper of the Matrix: cannot be snared or rooted. This isn't because of her spell-reflect buff. She is flagged as "immune to changes in run speed." I tested this by waiting for her buff to drop and attempting to Entrap her "buffless." No joy. (Incidentally this name is a homage to Doctor Who!)

This step was so annoying that we went and did a lot of other mercenary tasks in all the TDS zones and came back---3 months later. Not as hard as I feared, altho probably because toons had all gained levels, spells, AAs and gear. We pulled some of the mobs near the Keeper by using druid entrap and mage CoHero to clear agro. Then we killed the wandering see-invis broom to get 5 minutes of "peace" before it respawned. Once you're down just to the Keeper and the nearby book you can fight right in the Keeper's lane. Only the book adds. The Keeper's buff drops every so often and she doesn't recast it right away. We engaged at the Keeper's spot and burned her down in a minute. Everyone working on the quest has to loot so move fast because she respawns very quickly. Hail the Unseen guy. You can click to summon the hologram in the safe corridor in the SW corner. The hologram spawns right there and everybody can hail any hologram, once they've clicked their item and gotten the message.

The Analysis Room is much easier. It's due east down the same corridor just described above. There's one see-invis book near the door, worth clearing. Then move in, turn immediately right, go into corner. Click the item, a hologram spawns down the corridor straight ahead. Can be hailed at a safe distance for update. Have everyone else do the same thing.

Now to pick up the books. The books lie on a desk in one of the middle lanes. There's one static mob to clear and at least one broom paths down this lane. Pick up the books and run the spawned mob back to the group. The trait researcher cons yellow to a 105 and has a fair amount of HPs. When you kill it you get anywhere from 0 to 3 task step completions, depending on how many in your group need it. The books repop almost instantly so you can keep chain-killing, as long as you watch out for the local static spawn and the annoying brooms. We got 5 updates in 4 kills but the 6th update is still outstanding as of this writing.

I took Fayman's advice and had the 5 members who got the update do the NEXT step, hailing the Unseen guy. But that didn't seem to work, at least not yet, since 4 more kills later, the 6th member has not gotten his book update. Unfortunately once a group member has done the hail Unseen step, he cannot pick up the books to spawn more trait researchers. So if like me you have one remember left for this step HE will have to pick up the books. If he's not a tank, better hope your tank picks up agro asap. When I continue trying, going to set up group right AT the desk where the books spawn to help the tank get snap agro immediately.

Annoying step, because your advancement is entirely at the mercy of the RNG. However, it's very good XP and one way to look at it is that it's an XP grind where the mobs are unlimited and come at whatever pace your group wants to set. Wish they dropped a collectible on occasion but haven't seen any. Camping for now, hoping to get 6th update tomorrow. BTW, you can hail the Unseen from the corridor near him, entirely avoiding any risk of agro. Have one toon target the Unseen and the others can /assist-target and hail from safely out of sight.

Not even completely done yet and this mission has already become the most difficult and annoying task in all of TDS progression!

First shot in the morning got the 6th toon's update.

Now on to the Medical Chamber. Double invis works fine here 'cept for the bot. Move to the NE corner. There are two mobs in the second lane to the left, one static and one wanderer. Pull and kill them and do it quick.Then tag the optic bot and he'll come to the corner. Burn him down. Be prepared for the ae damage but an occasional cast of group heal should be sufficient.

After doing this a couple times, seems like there is a fairly easy route for this room.

First snare and drag off the two mobs in the aisle next to the optic bot. Then watch the pathing of the undead mob that roams the aisle the optic bot sits on. when the undead is far enough away, pull the optic bot over to the aisle that usually has two mobs (but is cleat now because they are snared off) and kill it there. Its not far enough that the optic bot is out of place, no warping should occur.

The first room I found it best to simply snare and train off the roamer and the mobs next to the book. Lead them out into the hall and drop agro. Then go back and kill a book or two, resnare the hall mobs as needed. This way one can kill the books at their spawn point safely and easily.

I think this will depend on the classes involved. As a ranger, snare/flusterbolt allowed me to park off the roamer and one of the two at the book. This clears the space long enough for two book kills before it needs to be redone.

Use the Observation Matrix in the Analysis Room and speak with the hologram it generates 0/1 (Arx Mentis)

having issues getting the hologram to appear. Getting the message "A hologram appears in the room" but nothing does.

Tried using outside the room, get "You should use this inside the analysis room" so, in the right room.

Tried standing in various places around The Unseen to the southern exit, including standing on top of the books needed in the next step, nada. _________________________________

Edit, the hologram appears on the east side of the room (basically straight across from where you enter the room from the last step) instead of directly on top of you ( as happened with the first step, nice consistency =P)

The way to the bot has some see invis but in the halls around the medical chamber it seems very safe. No brooms crossed our way, a good part to have a fellowship there, if you are not ubah you will perhaps need it like we did.

First pull: The bot warped back even in the same room. Thought we pull him back to the end of the room where no mobs is present, but that was a bad solution. Warrior tried to kill him on the spot but a carcass added, that jumped the healer merc, after that the whole row of mobs jumped in and ate our warrior while the crew did an Exodus with the druid.

Second try: So best solution seemed to kill the bot on the spot with the whole crew and offtank the carcass mob with the warrior while the mage pet did the main job. But there are more than one "carcass mob" for a possible add present. Did I mention that the mobs were not mezzable??? We realized that as we wanted to clear the way this time - it was a fast gate with the druid (I love druids meanwhile...)

That was nasty. While we took all mobs down the Bot had the needed drops for ALL 5 crew members of the 2 groups. BUT: what to do now? You should be very fast in that part else you have some nice little adds which help you in finding your solution faster. Until we found out what has been needed we had all adds in that part of the room respawning. Imagine fights on every part of the room, one caster merc and one healer merc going down (as usual because they ALWAYS stand on the spot in small rooms where they get eaten by the mobs) but it worked. All hailed the "recordings of Calix" in the part of the room where the Bot stands 8 times then hail the Unseen guy and we went out to Firiona Vie.

Solution: - cast the hologram item again (from steps before) - recordings are appearing - talk 8 times to the recordings - last step: update at the Unseen Unheard guy.

#5 Firiona Vie

Oh would every part of that quest be so easy. Succor -> Hail Firiona Vie....

Keeper of Matrix is an interesting part. Crowd control is really useful while offtanking the unmezzable adds. When Keeper of Matrix goes down he really fast respawns. But you can loot without getting aggro from Keeper. As long as you are fast enough if unmezzable mobs respawn you are good.

Did it with AE-Mezz, AE-debuff resists from Enc while Mage/Bst/Enc-Pet mawned down the unmezzable adds and the keeper. One healer merc was enough to get it going. "Blanket forget" on all mobs afterwards and it was done. The artifact drops 5 times in our case (for every player one) but you only need a single one for casting the hologram. Everybody can hail it. Perhaps it is worth keeping that item if the quest has to be redone but you don't want to mess around with the adds at looting again.

#3 Analysis Room: - Mobs are not mezzable and aggro fast if trying to sneak to the side. Even Druid Exodus seems to malfunction exactly in the right timing to kill group members. To find a way through all areas without meeting "see invis"-mobs (and there are a lot of them) is really time consuming... - area of the logbook is only visited by a broom who sees invis, so a mezzer or offtanker is useful - the trait researcher has a lot of hitpoints - the logbook even does not update regularly on taking it, if that is feature and not a bug, its a bad feature!!! - the logbook updates go random to the group members,, so if anybody picking it up it seems that anybody in the group could get the update with a specific chance. - 8 kills no update - after no updates we tried to get the next update for the one who got the update (the unseen unheared helper). After that immediately the next pick updated two group members, after that and the hail again before the next pick, another one got the update -> assumption: big bug in the script, it only gives updates when the next step has been done by the picker (or it is a big accident or the picking chance increases dramatically) - strange: the warrior in the group picked always the book to get the aggro but ALL got step by step updates, he didnt got his update till 17th kill!!!! - it updates at the END of the fight, not at the picking point!

Books are not giving any real exp. Had no real movement of the xp-bar even in AA-bar at 100%. Enchanter in group stuck at 1/4 books. After about 12-15 kills all group members had their quest. He dropped it and got it new. Then it updated again. Buggy...buggy...buggy...

If you are lucky then the two in front the the entrance to the lib are parted. One standed for us in front of the books, one on top/backside. pacified the roamer and the back, pulled the front, then got books till the front spawned again - rinse and repeat. So only one kill outside of the books necessary. But without pacify even mobs from the other side will add (carcasses). Not to mention that they are not mezzable.

But it seems you need to kill a lot of them. Some members got no single update after 4 kills!

Roamer and fast spawning mobs while the books have horrible hitpoints. Some spawns are not mezzable, some are but mezz strangely disappears in between, so you need to offtank partly up to 3 mobs if things run bad. And I don't see a reason why to play further as long as the drops are the same like in the other zones. Take much DPS to get mobs down and pull the books else you have a very interesting time killing countless ones.....

Annoying for sure, but boxing a shaman, SK, monk, I could kill the two mobs at the spawn point, then bring the book into the hall before they repopped. Easier yet was to have the monk run the two static spawns off, then SK popped book and brought it into corridor. Definitely annoying quest though. So far have just finished the study part.

Oh, and you can get more than one update off a single book, I have killed 6 books, and have 10 updates total between 3 characters.